with the authorities at geneva voltaire had got into dispute, owing to his attempt to establish a private theatre in the territory still dominated by the ghost of calvin. moreover, he was continually reminding them of servetus. when d’alembert’s article on geneva appeared the citizens were enraged, and voltaire thought proper to also purchase an estate near lausanne, in the vaud canton, which was somewhat less austere in theatrical matters. here gibbon was also residing at the time.
stupid stories have been told of gibbon’s attempts to see voltaire, and of their mutual laughter at each other’s ugliness. voltaire is said to have refused himself to the young englishman, which is very unlikely, and that he replied: “you are like the christian god: he permits one to eat and drink, but will never show himself.” it is said that he got voltaire’s mare let loose on purpose to see the old man chase after him. voltaire sent a servant to charge him twelve sous for seeing the great beast, whereupon he gave twenty-four, with the remark, “that will pay for a second visit.” gibbon himself, speaking of the winter of 1757-58, which he spent in the neighborhood of lausanne, says: “my desire of beholding voltaire, whom i then rated above his real magnitude, was easily gratified. he received me with civility as an english youth, but i cannot boast of any peculiar notice or distinction. the highest gratification which i derived from voltaire’s residence at lausanne was the uncommon circumstance of hearing a great poet declaim his own productions on the stage. he had formed a company of gentlemen and ladies, some of whom were not destitute of talents. my ardor, which soon became conspicuous, seldom failed of procuring me a ticket.... the wit and philosophy of voltaire, his table and theatre, refined in a visible degree the manners of lausanne; and, however addicted to study, i enjoyed my share of the amusements of society.”
this taste for directing theatrical representations was shared, perhaps we might say followed, by his great german admirer goethe. it was voltaire’s relaxation. one of his most particular friends was the great actor le kain. the drama was with him an instrument of education. he believed it to be a means both of softening and refining manners, and also of dispersing intolerance and superstition.
voltaire soon afterwards purchased a third estate at ferney, just a little over the french border, and here, eventually, he lived en grande seigneur, and was known as the “patriarch of ferney.” a philosopher, he said, with hounds at his heels, like a fox should never trust to one hole. accordingly, he had within easy distance the choice of three distinct governments wherein to find a place of refuge, for, as carlyle remarks, he “had to keep his eyes open and always have covert within reach, under pain of being torn to pieces, while he went about in the flesh, or rather in the bones, poor lean being.” he now had wealth, independence, and an assurance of safety, and had come to that time of life when most men who are able think they may fairly retire from their labors. but now was the time when he, casting aside all other pleasures and ambitions, threw himself with unflagging energy and unsurpassed industry into the great task of his life. it was from ferney he issued all the remarkable works of his later years.
at ferney, the old church obstructing his view of the alps, he built a new one, and got into trouble for doing so. he had inscribed on it, “deo erexit voltaire, 1761,” a phrase which betrayed rather patronage than devotion.
“it is,” he remarked, “the only church dedicated to god alone; all the others are dedicated to saints. for my part, i would rather worship the master than the valets.” on another occasion, he said: “yes, i adore god; but not monsieur his son, and madame his mother.” it was observed of the inscription that he had only a single word between himself and god. from the wall of his church he also built a tomb for himself. “the wicked will say that i am neither inside nor outside,” he remarked. of the church he remarked: “the wicked will say, no doubt, that i am building this church in order to throw down the one which conceals a beautiful prospect, and to have a grand avenue; but i let the impious talk, and go on working out my salvation.” if the wicked made the remarks predicted, they doubtless spoke the truth. it was even reported that voltaire personally superintended the removal of the old ruinous one, saying, “take away that gibbet” when pointing to the crucifix. the cure of moens, the parish adjoining ferney, cited voltaire before the ecclesiastical official of gex as guilty of impiety and sacrilege, and wagnière, voltaire’s secretary, says: “those gentlemen indulged the confident hope that m. de voltaire would be burned, or at least hanged, for the greater glory of god and the edification of the faithful. this they said publicly.” voltaire was enabled to strike terror to his persecutor by producing a royal ordinance of 1627 forbidding a cure to serve either as prosecutor or judge in such cases. the church remains, but the celebrated inscription was effaced during the restoration of the monarchy.
ferney became an asylum for the oppressed both from france and switzerland. many of these voltaire located in and about his chateau, but, as their number increased, he built nice stone houses, and, in a little time, the miserable hamlet which before his arrival had been a wilderness, became a prosperous colony of twelve hundred individuals and a veritable free state. there were both protestants and catholics among them, but such was the unanimity in which they lived under his protection, that we are told no one could conceive that different religions existed among them. among this colony he established the manufacture of weaving and of watches, by means of which his people presently became wealthy; the empress catherine ii., even when engaged in her turkish campaigns, paying her bon ami voltaire the compliment of assisting the ferney colony by an order for watches to the value of some thousand roubles. he pushed the work of his colonists into repute throughout the world, and was justified in saying to the duke of richelieu, “give me a fair chance, and i am the man to build a city.”
though everywhere maligned as an infidel and a scoffer, his life was one long act of benevolence. the watches of ferney became known as those of geneva. “fifteen years ago,” said a visitor, “there were barely at ferney three or four cottages and forty inhabitants; now it is astonishing to see a numerous and civilised colony, a theatre, and more than a hundred pretty houses.” “his charities,” says general hamley, “were munificent. when the order of jesuits was suppressed he took one of the body, father adam, into his house, and made him his almoner, a post which was far from being a sinecure.” hearing that mademoiselle corneille, the grandniece of the poet, was in poverty, voltaire, in the most delicate manner, invited her to his house, treated her as a relation, and gave her an education suitable to her descent. “it is,” he said, “the duty of an old soldier to be useful to the daughter of his general.” that she might not feel under personal obligation, he devoted to her dowry the profits of his commentaries on corneille.
“a description is given of him in his last days at ferney, seated under a vine, on the occasion of a fête, and receiving the congratulations and complimentary gifts of his tenantry and neighbors, when a young lady, whom he had adopted, brought him in a basket a pair of white doves with pink beaks, as her offering. he afterwards entertained about 200 guests at a splendid repast, followed by illuminations, songs, and dances, and was himself so carried away in an access of gaiety as to throw his hat into the air. but his merriment ended in a tempest of wrath; for learning, in the course of the evening, that the two doves which had figured so prettily in the fête had been killed for the table, his indignation at the stolid cruelty which could shed the blood of the creatures they had all just admired and caressed, knew no bounds.”
diderot, who shares with voltaire the glory of being the intellectual landmark of last century, and who equalled him as an artist and excelled him as a philosopher, only met voltaire a little before his death. the fame of voltaire’s wealth had kept him from ferney. speaking of voltaire in old age, diderot says: “he is like one of those old haunted castles, which are falling into ruins in every part; but you easily perceive that it is inhabited by some ancient magician.” diderot was the better critic, and controverted the patriarch as to the merits of shakespeare, whom he compared to the statue of saint christopher at notre dame—unshapely and rude; but: such a colossus that ordinary petty men could pass between his legs without touching him.
late in life, voltaire adopted reine philiberte de vericourt, a young girl of noble but poor family, whom he had rescued from a convent life, installed in his own house, and married to the marquis de villette. her pet name was belle et bonne, and no one had more to do with the happiness of the last years of voltaire than she. she watched by the dying voltaire’s bedside, and lady morgan thus records her report: “to his last moment everything he said and did breathed the benevolence and goodness of his character. all announced in him tranquility, peace, resignation; except a little moment of ill-humor which he showed to the cure of st. sulpice when he begged him to withdraw, and said, 'let me die in peace.’”
voltaire himself wrote to mme. du deffand: “they say sometimes of a man, 'he died like a dog’; but, truly, a dog is very happy to die without all the ceremony with which they persecute the last moments of our lives. if they had a little charity for us, they would let us die without saying anything about it. the worst is that we are then surrounded by hypocrites, who worry us to make us think as they do not in the least think; or else by imbeciles, who desire us to be as stupid as they are. all this is very disgusting. the only pleasure of life at geneva is that people can die there as they like; many worthy persons summon no priest at all. people kill themselves if they please, without any one objecting; or they await the last moment, and no one troubles them about it.”
under suffering, age, and impending death, voltaire’s bearing, as carlyle acknowledges, “one must say is rather beautiful.” voltaire had all his life “enjoyed” bad health. he had always a feeble constitution, and was a confirmed invalid for the greater part of his life, suffering from bladder disorder, and a variety of other diseases that would have soon finished an ordinary man. we may say he was sustained by his work, which was ever gay, even when most pessimistic. “my eyes are as red as a drunkard’s,” he writes, “and i have not the honor to be one.” his wit lasted in old age. a visitor to ferney, hearing him praise haller enthusiastically, told him that haller did not do him equal justice. “ah,” said voltaire, lightly, “perhaps we are both mistaken.” to bailly, the astronomer, he wrote, at the age of eighty-one: “a hundred thanks for the book of medicine which you sent me, together with your own [history of ancient astronomy], when i was very unwell. i have not opened the first. the second i have read and feel much better.” he kept himself at work with coffee. his interest was ever in his work. at the very last, the new dictionary he had proposed to the academy was on his mind; it was not proceeding as rapidly as his indefatigable spirit desired. “j'ai fait un pen de bien; c'est mon meilleur ouvrage”—“i have done a little good; that is my best work,” was one of his latest utterances.
his physicians gave their opinion that he might have lived even longer than he did had he not been lured to paris by his niece (unprepossessing madame denis) to superintend the production of his last tragedy irene. asked at the barrier if there was anything contraband in the carriage, he replied, “only myself.” on entering paris he received a shock in the news that his friend le kain, the actor, had been buried the day before. he was visited by benjamin franklin, who brought his grandson, whom they desired to kneel for the patriarch’s blessing. pronouncing in english the words, “god, liberty, toleration”—“this,” said voltaire, “is the most suitable benediction for the grandson of franklin.” poems, addresses and deputations came thick upon him, and his hotel was thronged with visitors of rank and eminence. the popular voice hailed the aged patriarch, especially as the defender of calas, the apostle of universal toleration; and this title was more gratifying to him than any other.
in one house where voltaire called on his last visit to paris, the mistress reproached him for the obstinacy with which, in extreme old age (over eighty-three), he continued to assail the church and its beliefs. “be moderate and generous,” said she, “after the victory. what can you fear now from such adversaries? the fanatics are prostrate (à terre). they can no longer injure. their reign is over.” voltaire replied: “you are in error, madame; it is a fire that is covered but not extinguished. those fanatics, those tartuffes, are mad dogs. they are muzzled, but they have not lost their teeth. it is true they bite no more; but on the first opportunity, if their teeth are not drawn, you will see if they will not bite.” all that one man could do was done by voltaire. more than any other, he helped to muzzle the mad dog of religious intolerance, lassoing it dexterously with his finespun silken thread, since replaced by a stronger cord. but the beast even yet is not dead; its teeth are not all drawn. give it a chance and it will still bite. what we have to thank voltaire for is, that he has left works which, as he himself said, are “scissors and files to file the teeth and pare the talons of the monsters.”
voltaire was, as he said, stifled in roses. he sat up at night perfecting irene, and his unwearied activity induced him at his great age to begin a dictionary upon a novel plan which he prevailed upon the french academy to take up. at the performance of his tragedy he was crowned with laurel in his box, amid the plaudits of the audience. to keep himself up under the excitement, he exceeded even his usual excess of coffee. these labors and dissipation brought on spitting of blood, and sleeplessness, to obviate which he took opium. condorcet says the servant mistook one of the doses, which threw him into a state of lethargy, from which he never recovered. he lingered for some time, but at length expired on the 30th of may, 1778, in his eighty-fourth year.
of course lying tales of dying horrors were floated, and disbelieved in by all who knew him. he wished to rest in his own churchyard, and let the abbé gaultier and the curé de st. sulpice squabble as to who should have, the honor of his conversion. his secretary, being alone with him, begged him to state what his view continued to be when he believed himself dying; and received this written declaration: “i die adoring god, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, detesting superstition”—“je meurs eti adorant dieu, en aimant mes amis, en ne baissant pas mes ennemis, de testant superstition.” this dying declaration may be seen at the bibliothèque nationale, paris (fr. 11,460), written, signed and dated by him in a still firm hand, february, 1778.
into the stories told of voltaire’s dying moments and many similar legends, my colleague, mr. g. w. foote, has fully entered in his infidel deathbeds. he quotes the following extract from a letter by dr. burard, who, as assistant physician, was constantly about voltaire in his last moments:
“i feel happy in being able, while paying homage to truth, to destroy the effect of the lying stories which have been told respecting the last moments of mons. de voltaire. i was, by office, one of those who were appointed to watch the whole progress of his illness, with mm. tron-chin, lorry, and try, his medical attendants. i never left him for an instant during his last moments, and i can certify that we invariably observed in him the same strength of character, though his disease was necessarily attended with horrible pain. (here follow the details of his case.) we positively forbade him to speak, in order to prevent the increase of a spitting of blood, with which he was attacked; still he continued to communicate with us by means of little cards, on which he wrote his questions; we replied to him verbally, and if he was not satisfied, he always made his observations to us in writing. he therefore retained his faculties up to the last moment, and the fooleries which have been attributed to him are deserving of the greatest contempt. it could not even be said that such or such person had related any circnmstance of his death, as being witness to it; for at the last, admission to his chamber was forbidden to any person. those who came to obtain intelligence respecting the patient, waited in the saloon, and other apartments at hand. the proposition, therefore, which has been put in the mouth of marshal richelieu is as unfounded as the rest.
“paris, april 3rd, 1819.
“(signed) burard.”
the actual facts are thus told by mr. parton: “ten minutes before he breathed his last he roused from his slumber, took the hand of his valet, pressed it, and said to him: ‘adieu, my dear morand; i am dying.’ these were his last words.”
d’alembert, in a letter to frederick, written after voltaire’s death, thus recorded the impression made on him by the dying man. having described the stupefying effects of the opium which left his head clear only for brief intervals, d’alembert, who saw him during one of them, proceeds: “he recognised me and even spoke to me some friendly words. but the moment after he fell back into his state of stupor, for he was almost always dying. he awoke only to complain and to say ‘he had come to paris to die.’” throughout his illness, d’alembert adds, “he exhibited, to the extent which his condition permitted, much tranquility of mind, although he seemed to regret life. i saw him again the day before his death, and to some friendly words of mine he replied, pressing my hand, ‘you are my consolation.’”
it is certain the heads of the french church did not consider that voltaire had made a death-bed conversion, for they refused his body burial in consecrated ground. they had anathematised him when alive and proscribed him when dead. he had prepared a tomb for himself under the sky, where he had grown old and done good, but he was cheated out of his rights, and it was decided that he who built the church had no right to have his bones bleach in the cemetery. letters were sent to the bishop of annecy, in whose diocese ferney was, enjoining him to prohibit the cure thereof from giving voltaire’s remains christian burial in his own churchyard. voltaire’s nephew, the abbé mignot, held a ruined abbey at scillieres, in champagne, a hundred miles or so from paris; and here the body was secretly hurried off and interred. on the very day of interment the bishop of the diocese wrote to the prior forbidding the burial. there was even some talk of having the body exhumed, and the clergy clamored for the expulsion of the prior. grimm relates that “the players were forbidden to act m. de voltaire’s pieces till further orders, the editors of the public papers to speak of his death in any terms, either favorable or unfavorable, and the preceptors of the colleges to suffer any of their scholars to learn his verses.”
in 1791, by a decree of the national assembly and amid the acclamation of the people, his body was brought and placed in the pantheon, where it rested beside that of rousseau. at the restoration in 1814 some bigoted royalist stole away the bones, which were thrown into a hole with lime poured on them.
in person voltaire was always slim, with the long head which, carlyle says, “is the best sign of intelligence.” his thinness is commemorated by the poor but well-known epigram attributed to young, and identifying him at once with “satan, death, and sin.” in old age he became a mere skeleton, with eyes of great brilliancy peering beneath his wig. he was sober and temperate save in coffee, which he drank as inveterately as johnson did tea. conversation and literature were, as with johnson, the gods of his idolatry.
